criticism   
02:47pm 10/07/2009
  More "I've been pondering, so I thought I'd see what LJ has to say":

Offering criticism is tough work, and can be very vulnerable-feeling. How can I make it feel safe for you to give me critical feedback? How do you try to make this safe for others, and how do folks you admire seem to do it? How do you balance this, moreover, with the fact that there are people whose feedback simply doesn't mean much to you?		  
     Post
 
Am I wanky yet?   
11:26am 09/07/2009
  I've been revising my interests list, and I suspect I'm taking too much pleasure in it for it to be useful rather than self-absorbed wankery. I'm a mite too gleeful, perhaps, about strings such as, "self-education, self-realization, self-reliance, selfishness." (Maybe what I should do is just toss "self-absorption" into that list! Heh.)

So, this post makes sure I know exactly which side of that line I'm on, by indulging myself still further and asking... if you see anything I've missed, what is it?		  
     Read 3 - Post
 
   
08:52am 07/07/2009
  Hallo, internets! Do you have pruning skills that weren't gained through years of trial and error? Where did you get these skills, then?

(I think I have a half-decent eye for continuing the pruning pattern in fruit trees which have seen regular professional maintenance. Trees and shrubs which have gotten decidedly overgrown, or which haven't had a history of professional pruning, are much trickier. How do you even get in there to see the trunk and basic structure? I didn't do anything too terrible to the yew hedge I was poking at last night, but I was operating purely on guesswork, and I'd like to change that. Well, and it didn't help to be pruning in the dark; in the light of day I could see some places where I'd like to thin the growth and open them up a little.)		  
     Read 3 - Post
 
runner beans!   
11:36am 08/05/2009
  As I left the house this morning, I saw that my scarlet runner beans are finally beginning to pop up. What gorgeous seedlings! I should try to remember to get a photo. They have a purplish cast to them, and fine veins already visible on the tiny tightly packed leaves.  
     Post
 
unforeseen side effects   
10:35pm 06/05/2009
  I seem to be more attractive on days when I'm actively engaged in sorcery- people respond to me differently, anyhow.  
     Read 9 - Post
 
   
10:57am 05/05/2009
  I'm insufficiently motivated to swap to Dreamwidth if it will put a damper on discussions because folks are less likely to comment if they have to use OpenID. That looks to be the case at present. Splitting comments is unacceptable to me for the same reason: I am intent on herding all commenters into the same room and poking them until they interact.

So, I could post on Dreamwidth and have it copied over to LJ, but enable comments only on LJ (thus reading and posting on two different sites... suboptimal!); or I could periodically import my LJ posts and comments to Dreamwidth in order to have a full backup and switch smoothly if that decision ever makes sense (but what happens when you import a newer edition of your journal over an older one, anyhow? anyone know?); or I could delete the content that's currently here and basically park the username and the style I have set up. Or I could do some entirely different thing which is better than the not very appealing options I've mentioned: what is it?		  
     Read 8 - Post
 
Dreamwidth   
10:28am 04/05/2009
  Okay, yes, I'm trying this out as well. The big question, of course: if you are a someone who comments on my livejournal entries, are you less likely to click over and comment on dreamwidth instead? I'm going to leave comments open in both places for this post; feel free to try it out before answering that.

Edit: I should maybe add a link in the lj version of this entry, so you can actually go easily to the dreamwidth version! Oops. This post is also at http://najalaise.dreamwidth.org/173975.html?mode=reply		  
     Read 11 - Post
 
   
04:31pm 30/04/2009
  Sometimes my desires to hurt people are specific to male-bodied or female-bodied people. Okay, yes, this makes sense- perhaps I want to do certain things to certain parts of the anatomy, or maybe it's an aesthetic thing. There are, after all, grey areas between what I find aesthetically pleasing and what I find arousing, and it can be hard to say exactly why some things are appealing.

But sometimes my desires to hurt people are specific to a gender or range of genders. What am I on about there? I am not very clear on this. There seems to be a difference in my head between daydreams of inflicting pain on masculine people and daydreams of inflicting pain on feminine people. My approach may even be different, at least internally. What am I on about?



In totally unrelated news, if you are a masculine person who enjoys other masculine people, Najalaises, and pain, you might should let me know.		  
     Read 30 - Post
 
   
03:45pm 29/04/2009
  ( late gardening post, but going up anyhow for record-keeping )  
     Post
 
   
11:58am 21/04/2009
  Crazy survivalists in the audience, do you prioritize specialization or redundancy?

Alice and I were pondering earlier whether, if one is planning a nutty little compound, it's better to emphasize skill level- and therefore divide important skills in order to have someone who is quite good at whatever you've named crucial- or better to make sure each person has all the Absolutely Vital skills- and therefore make teamwork more viable, and make each person a more autonomous unit. I think my ideal is to make sure everybody is exposed to the core concepts, gets a little bit of practice, and has documentation on each of the Absolutely Vital things... but have experts emerge in each area. It seems important to ensure that, should someone need to, they'd be able to pick up a skill or task relatively smoothly.		  
     Read 15 - Post
 
   
09:11am 21/04/2009
  ( watersports in the garden )  
     Read 4 - Post
 
eggplant gender!   
10:39am 17/04/2009
  ( backstory )
me: am i round-dimpled, seedy, and less meaty or am i oval-dimpled, meaty, and less seedy?
Phil: good question!
me: is it "meat" as in "the meat of the argument" and what makes someone substantial, or does it signify the temporariness of the flesh while seeds are potential for the future?
is meat Works and seeds Faith?
what's the significance of round vs. oval?


Help me decide what my Eggplant Gender is!		  
     Read 1 - Post
 
   
02:02pm 15/04/2009
  When you decide to stop doing something that you really like, how do you make yourself stop with the grumbling?

I had thought of myself as moderately cautious with breathplay: willing to have it done to me, or, to a somewhat lesser degree, to do it to others, and therefore not cautious by the standards of those who warn loudly against it... but not putting anyone close to loss of consciousness or doing any of the other horrifying things which I read of folks doing. Then, a few weeks back, I wound up with petechial hemorrhaging. That prompted me to look again at the available information about risks. After reading about scarcely-noticeable minor brain damage and memory loss, I decided that I could not be as certain as I'd hoped about how careful I was being, and that gradual brain damage is not an acceptable risk. I am confident that this is the right decision for me, but I still have a "that's not fair; what fun thing do I get instead?" whine.

What fun new kink should I try?		  
     Read 58 - Post
 
more plant-babblings, or steady on?   
09:52am 15/04/2009
  I was thinking that I should get a little calendar book to log planting dates, harvests, and so forth, so that I'll have records in order to adjust my tactics where needed. It occurs to me, though, that if I posted all that here and tagged it thoroughly, it'd be easy to look up information, my records wouldn't be subject to the weaknesses of paper, I might get handy feedback, and it's possible that it'd be useful to someone. I'd put all but the shortest entries behind cuts, I think.

Would it be pleasant or useful to you to have access to my gardening notes? Do you see drawbacks or excellent features of this approach?		  
     Read 15 - Post
 
   
02:26pm 14/04/2009
  My clever egg carton seedling tray is only clever for the tomatoes (and probably for other small or slow plants, I expect). The zucchini, though it doesn't even have seed-leaves opened yet, has roots visible crawling everywhere. They're so wee developmentally, but they're climbing out of the soil!

I'll transplant them to larger containers tonight, and maybe also plant more seeds in more of the larger containers, as insurance in case I shock the first batch too much. These ones have had a rough infancy- they also spent a day upside-down after the tray was knocked off the windowsill.		  
     Read 7 - Post
 
tightly-furled and reaching   
03:26pm 07/04/2009
  The sugar snap peas on my porch are coming up and just starting to show their tendrils. The parsley, thyme, and dill on the windowsill have sprouted. There are more seeds planted, waiting to germinate: chard, beets, chives, snow peas, kale, and mustard in containers on the porch; zucchini and cherry tomatoes in an egg carton on another windowsill.

I am very transparently obsessed with seeds and small green growing things right now, plotting more container gardens and scheming to take over a section of the yard for squash, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and more kale. I need basil for the porch, and probably brightly flowering runner beans to either side of the door. I might also need salt and olive oil and vinegar tucked away at my doorstep like a spare key, as [info]adularia suggested, for impromptu picnics.

What else should I have growing?		  
     Read 14 - Post
 
Important Alert to San Franciscans   
08:51pm 22/03/2009
  The present beware! The future beware! He's coming, he's coming, he's coming!

...Actually, it isn't George Washington. It's Najalaise.

I'll be in San Francisco the weekend of the 28th and the beginning of the following week, and it looks like I'll have some open spots in the schedule. Will you be there? Want to visit?		  
     Read 14 - Post
 
Serious Question   
09:27am 17/03/2009
  Why is Dave Matthews Band so very White People's Music?  
     Read 19 - Post
 
bodies are STRANGE and GROSS.   
03:52pm 05/03/2009
  Most days, if you asked, I'd tell you that I have too few pockets. Today, I know I have at least one too many, with signs pointing to two.

Seriously, why would you put a pocket there?		  
     Read 12 - Post
 
I am a terribly lucky Najalaise.   
06:43pm 22/02/2009
  Tonight I was rather cleverly pickpocketed, but didn't lose anything except some spare change that was spilled in the street.

I was downtown, getting on the 18. Some guy got on through the back door just ahead of me, then started asking passengers questions. He was blocking the entrance rather than moving to a side, so I waited a moment or two, then said "excuse me" a couple times, but he didn't respond. Turns out that his buddy was behind me, going through my backpack.

People on the bus and waiting to get on saw, told him off, and made him hand back my wallet. Which he already had, and which I'd've had no idea was missing until I sat down and took off my backpack. I didn't even quite understand what they were saying had happened until my wallet was back in my hand and he was off down the street- at first I thought I was being accused of stealing someone else's purse. I heard later that one of the folks who noticed had spat on him, which pleases me to no end. I didn't even think to confront him, only to check whether I still had my debit cards and whatnot.

I feel more embarrassed than angry, both to have stood there unsuspecting for long enough and to have had my wallet in an outer pocket of my backpack. Oh my goodness am I a lucky idiot. Thank you, Universe!		  
     Read 6 - Post
 
 
najalaise
 
 
skip  
 
 

Advertisement